Such Pushy Ballerinas

Dance elitists and simple lovers of fancy footwork will be pleased with the pieces that made it to Miami City Ballets Program II. With both a nod to the pink ballets of the Nineteenth Century and a wink at vaudevillian high jinks, the performance ties together pieces from dance notables George Balanchine and Twyla Tharp.

Tharps trend-setting Push Comes to Shove is sandwiched between two Balanchine pieces: La Source, which drips with tutus and classicism, and Western Symphony, a charmingly plotless cowboy ballet. Although Balanchine is a time-honored fixture in the Ballets repertoire, these works are actually among the choreographers least-performed pieces. All the same, the delicate restraint of La Source, with its uncomplicated pastiche of romantic-era divertissements, provides effervescent family fare.

Western Symphony is also a crowd pleaser and sports a pair of principal dancers (a lovesick cowboy and a saloon floozy) capering around to exuberant folk ditties like Red River Valley and Oh Dem Golden Slippers among a cast of dancehall girls and rugged baddies. Perhaps the primary treat of the evening, however, is the Miami City Ballet premiere of Tharps Push, an unpretentious, lighthearted fusion of classical ballet and jazzy steps, accented with plenty of cabaret-style humor. Fri., Jan. 13, 8 p.m.; Sat., Jan. 14, 8 p.m.; Sun., Jan. 15, 2 p.m.